Highlands High School has welcomed a ton of new teachers to the nest, including the new Chemistry teacher, Andrea Higgins. 

Higgins explains what she likes to do in her free time. She described her family and what she enjoys outside of school. With her husband of 15 years, Kevin, she has 3 kids, Reagan (13), Quin (11), and Lorelei (7).

“I love to hike. I run, but I don’t like it and I enjoy watching games.” Higgins said.

Although, she barely has enough time to do what she loves, because teachers have homework too. Grading school work can be a large and hefty amount of work to get done, especially for more than one class of roughly 20 students each. Higgins teaches 4 Chemistry classes, and 1 AP Environmental Science class. 

Higgins has always been a teacher, she started her career at Holy Cross, then Bishop Brossart, and finally went to Mount Notre Dame just right before Highlands. It seems like she already has a good grip on teaching high school students, despite the challenges of teaching at a new school where there is a variety of different peers and pupils.

“One of my challenges with teaching at a new school is getting to know the routine of the school,”  Higgins explains.

Higgins explained why she chose to teach at Highlands.

“I heard it is a great place to work with great students and as a bonus, one of my best friends “(Mrs. Listerman)” works here .”

Welcome to the nest, Andrea Higgins!

Spanish teacher Monica Luebbers is standing by her board of notes for her next class.   

Monica Luebbers is one of the new Spanish l and Spanish ll teachers. When the sun is up, so is she. She wakes up, brushes her teeth, and then turns on all the lights of her indoor garden. 

Luebbers usually gets to school around 7:00 A.M.

 In her free time, she loves to cook, watch TikTok, and chat with her international friends.

“I teach four sections of Spanish I and one section of Spanish II,” Luebbers explains.

Luebbers said, “I enjoy teaching Spanish because I see student paradigms shifting as they are exposed to another language.”

Before Highlands, Luebbers taught at Notre Dame. But there is always that one question, why switch to Highlands?

“Highlands because I wanted to work with kids who would give me their all. I wanted to teach kids who were curious and interested in their education. Highlands has had the reputation of being a community dedicated to education and I wanted to be a part of it.” said Luebbers

Even though teachers work hard every day, there are still some weaknesses. Some examples are remembering students’ names, keeping track of time, making sure everyone turned in their work on time, and grades.

“My weaknesses as a teacher? It has to be passing out all the papers to everyone. I somehow always forget to give the papers out to someone, and they have to remind me. I also lose track of time so I try to keep an apple watch with me.” said Luebbers.